Automatic coffee urn



Jan. 12, 1932. T. J. TOPPER AUTOMATIC COFFEE URN Filed Nov. 19, 1929INVENTOR. fi/oMAs J Top/ 52 ATTORNEY.

Patented Jan. 12, 1932 4 UNETED STATES PATENT OFFICE THOMAS J. TOPPER,OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA AUTOMATIC COFFEE UEN Application filedNovember 13, 1929. Serial N0. 408,277.

The invention relates to improvements in pensive construction whichcauses the water coffee urns, particularly the commercial type to beelevated from the water heating chamin which the Water heating andcoffee brewher to the brewing chamber whereby the deing chamberv areoperatively connected. sir-able and approved superimposed relation 5Withurns of the type to which this invenof the brewing chamber to thewater heating 55 tionrela'tes'it has been the practice to manuchamber inthe urn structure need not be ally open a feed valve to permit water tofeed changed.

from the heating chamber to the brewing Still another object is toprovide in a coffee chamber and to snut off the valve when a urn of thecharacter described an automatic '10 water gageindicates the desiredamount of measuring and water feeding means wherein 60 aterhas thus beenfed, Such an operation an adjustable intake pipe lOCatGCl within therequires that considerable skill and close at water heating chamber andpiping extending tention' of the operator be exercised to insure intosaid chamber from the brewing cham the feeding of the proper amount ofwater. her are connected by a novel and highly ef- 15. The operator muststand with his hand on ficient coupling means which provides for, 55

the valve, watching the" gage, forfrom five a smooth and accurateadjustment of said to ten minutes or more, ready to shut off the pipeand prevents accumulation in and the valve immediately the gageindicates the stoppage of the feed line to the brewing proper feed hastaken place. Should the mber- *operator become-distracted or otherwisebe- The invention possess s other je ts and 7) f come inattentive to theoperation, an over features of advantage, some of which, with feedingmight and often does occur with the the foregoing, will be set forth inthe folresult that not only is the coffee brew spoiled lowingdescription of the preferred form of but, clue to the overflowing of theurn, an the invention which is illustrated in the drawobjectionallysloppy condition in and around mgs accompanying and forming part of the7 the urn is created, specification. It is '60 be understood, llOW- 'Anobject of this invention is to provide ever, that variations in theshowing made by a coffee urn of the approved and present day the saiddrawings and description may be popular t which will eliminate in aparadopted within the scope of the invention as 30. ticularly eff cientmanner the objections hereset forth in the claims. so

tofore encountered in theoperation of such eferring to the drawlngs,urnsfby th ision for automatically stop- Figure 1 1s a front elevationof a coffee urn ping the water feed to the brewing chamber constructedin accordance with my invention. 7 when the desired and predeterminedamount igure 2 is a vertical sectional view of the of water has been fedto said chamber. n h wn in Figure 1.

7 Another object is to provide a coffee urn Figure 3 is an enlargedfragmentary secof the character described in which by a sintional viewof the automatic measuring means gle, easily effected movement of anoperating particularly showing the novel coupling dcmember the operatormay set the urn to cause vice.

"; 40 the entire contents of water in the heating Figure 4 is across-sectional view taken on on chamber, or any predetermined amountless the plane of line 4 -4 of Figure 2.

than the full amount, to be automatically The present embodiment of myinvention, delivered to the heating chamber in such as shown in detailin the accompanying draw- I manner that after such setting operation theings, comprises a coffee urn of a popular type operators attention tothe urn is no longer wherin there is provided in a comparatively 95required, whercbythe operator is free to atnarrow, upright cylindricalcasing i a coffee tend to other duties. v brewing chamber 2, the lowerpart of which A further object is to provide for the autois surroundedby a generally annular water matic water feed in the manner hereinbeforeheating chamber 3. A burner 4 is arranged described, with a means ofsimple and errto heat the water in said chamber. \Vater at its; upperendwhereby when hot water is chambers. It will be noted that the brewingchamber -2 has a coffee grounds container 10 elevated by steam pressure,from the water heating chamber' and discharged into said contalner' 10,the brew w1ll drip through the V perforate bottom 11 of said containerinto 7 the coffee containing portion 12 ofthe' brewing chamber, saidportion being known as the crock.

usua-l:manner through a faucet 14: which is eonnected by piping 31 iwith the crock -12.

Means isiprovi'ded'for elevating the water the upper p art ofthe brewingchamber from-the water chamber 3"an'd causing meassure'd quantitieathereof to be discharged lnto ti l A01 means 1s preferably so arrangedthat-it may be 'manuallyset to deliver substantially the 1 entirecontents-of the water chamber-or any predetermined lesser amount.Thisarrange- 'ment issuoh that the operator, say desiring :to makeii'v'elgallonsofcoffee, after having fplaced the proper amount of-cofieein-the container ll) therefor, by a simple'and easily f'efi'ectedmovement of an operating member -sets the urn apparatus tocausejust-that amount'of water to' be deliveredto the brewing-chamber.'To effect'this delivery-a valve is opened, but said valve neednotice-closed 'anamount of Water has been fedQasWas the at the momentthat'the gage indicates such case heretofore, for with the'ineans ofthis invention the Water feed automatically ceases 'whenthepredeterminedamount has fe'd'to tliebrewing chamber. Therefore,'but a mo-Inentsattention of the operator isr'equ'ired to bring a-bout t'hevaccurate feeding of-the -water to the urn'andnot only are over feedngand-spoiling of-the brew,xand overflowmg of the urn prevented, but theoperatoris free to perform other duties, whereas'heref'tofore from 5 tohr more minutes of the operators time-was taken up with each brew- *ingof water. At any-convenienttime after a feeding operation, in accordanceWit-hthis invention, the operator may "close'the feed valve. Suchclosing is not entirely necessary except that the steamin theheatin-gcham* her will escape therefrom whenthe valve is "open, as "will belater described,'yet on closing the valve the steampressurexwill"immediate'ly build up sufiicient toforcethewater feed. 'v

-'As here shown, this automatic, measuring, water feeding ,meanscomprises anlntak'e pipe mountedfor movement on'a'h orizontal axiswithin the annular part of the :water chamber 3and connected by acoupling Ineans'16 with piping 17 which terminates in a nozzle 18 fordirecting the'water dowm Coffee may be drawn off in the wardly into thecoffee groundscontainer 10. The pipe 16 has a narrow slot like open freeend 19which is disposable when the pipe is adjusted, into differentplanes withrespeot to the level of the water in the chamber 3.

It will then be seen that when a given or known'amount of water iscontained in the chamber 3, upon adjusting said pipe to dispose said endthereof in different positions relative to said level, say, throughapproximately 180 ofarc ,'th'at different amounts of water as desiredmay be caused to pass out "through said pipe. In the present instance 11utilizethe pressure of the steam which-is generated in heating thewater, to force the water out through this intake pipe and elevate. itto the 1 brewing chamber. 3 It may here be notedithatiby reasonfoftheinarrowopening 19 the: escape-10f: steamrthrough thefi-ntake'pipe-when the water drains:to the level of said op ening: is minimizedand :furtner'more measuring ofthewater toa greater 4 nicetyisrprovidedfor by'suchran opening.

ii'djustmentof the intake pipe 15 isefl'ected through -thecoupling means16, which:with'-" the adjusting means will nowi bewdescribed.

The inner end of'the pipe l5vis-rsuita-bly coupled with one end of arotatable tubular conduit 21 j ournaled in a bearing sleeve '22. Thissleeve has anexternally threaded inner end 23' extended through anopening 24 in the casing l insuch manner that n-uts 25 and 26 may betur-ne'd thereon to securely =-attach'-the sleeve in place. The tubularconduit' 21 extends inwardly beyond said end of thesleev-e thro-ughastufling box provided by packing 27 and thenut- 25. At the junctureofsaid conduit 21 with the intake pipe 15 is a counterweight "member-28disposed as] downward extension of said pipe, said counterweightacting to normally hold the pipe 15-in inoperative position, that is,with 1 the end 19 of saidjpipe at the point of its greatest possibleelevationin thechamber 3.

V Thegwater entering. the conduit 21 discharges througha largeoutlet'opening29 in one side.

of the pipe, the adjacent endof the pipebeing closed 'by thewallz'ifiO.The pipi g 17 is con- *nected with said sleeve 22 in such manner as v tocommunicate through an opening 31 with it-he opening 29. Owing to therelatively great size: of: the outlet opening '29 1 compared ltotheopening 31 said openings will remain in registration and communicationwith one another throughout rotation of the conduit member 21 through 1approximately I 180 of are, which rotation; is necessary to dispose theopen end'19 of the pipeil5atitshighest and lowest points. Thusthroughoutthe range of adjustment of the 151136 15"the cou- 'pling meansmaintains communication of the pipe 15 with the hot water'lfeed:piping'17 leading toithe brewing-chamber; It will be noted that thesize, shape andarrangement'of 'the'large-opening 29 also preventsaccumulations or alkaline or other encrustations from forming andstopping the line. Piping 17 is controlled by a valve 34 connected in asection of said piping and which is opened by hand after setting thepipe to a predetermined position, said valve being closed at anyconvenient time after the feeding operation inasmucn as the cessation ofwater feed is not dependent upon closing said valve.

A hand wheel 35 carried on a shaft 86 which is fixed to the closed endof the conduit 21 provides for readily turning said conduit and therebydisposing the end 19 of the pipe 15 at different levels necessary tocause ditierent predetermined amounts of water to be fed to brewingvessel. A bearing member 38 for the shaft 36 has a threaded reducedinner end 38 screwed into a threaded opening 39 at one end of the sleeve22, there being a suitable stufiing box 40 provided on a reduced outerend 41 of said bearing. Furthermore the bearing 38 serves as a means forsupporting a dial 4:2 held thereon by the nuts 43 and A. On the face ofthe dial are calibrations 45 indicating gallons, said calibrationsbeing, for example, numbered 1 to 7 from left to right. On the shaft isa pointer 46 arranged to move over and close to the calibrated face ofthe dial. These parts are positioned in such manner that when thepointer is disposed opposite one of the calibrations of the dial, theopen end 19 of the pipe 15 will be disposed to cause the amount of waterindicated by the pointer and dial to be fed to the brewing chamber. Thusit will be seen that any predetermined amount of water under and up tothe full content of the water chamber may be readily and easily fed tothe brewing vessel, through the simple expedient of turning the handwheel until the pointer comes to the mark on the dial indicating theamount of water desired, and then merely opening the valve 34. Stops 46on the dial limit the movement of the pointer and shaft 36.

It will now be clear that the urn of this invention may be operated in aparticularly efficient manner to provide the objects and advantageshereinbefore described.

I claim: I

.1. A liquid intake pipe having an intake end arranged to be disposed atdifferent levels in a body-of liquid, another pipe, an angular rotatableextension of said intake pipe having an elongated arcuate side openingof greater length than the diameter of the extension and arranged toregister with one end of the second pipe, a coupling sleeve rotatablyjoining said extension and the second pipe, means for rotating theextension, and a counterbalancing extension depending from said intakepipe at the juncture thereof with said extension.

2. A liquid intake pipe having an intakeend arranged to be disposed atdifferent levels in a body of liquid, another pipe, a rotatableextension of said intake pipe having a side opening of greater widththan the diameter of the extension and arranged to register with one endof the second named pipe, a coupling SlQ-OYS joining said extension andthe second named. pipe, a rotatable handle member fixed to saidextension, a counterbalancing means carried by said intake pipe andarranged to normally hold the same upright.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Oakland,California, this 9th day of November, 1929.

THOMAS J. TOPPER.

